


Blue through the Ground

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: Soul Threads [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Apocalypse, Lucifer's Cage, M/M, Soulmate AU, Soulmates Behaving Badly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 13:19:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7716271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam finally had his answer about his bizarre soulmate thread.  Not that he knew what to do about his bizarre soulmate situation.  Oh, and there's an Apocalypse to deal with, too.</p>
<p>Major character death is canonical.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue through the Ground

**Author's Note:**

> Two comments, two calls for a sequel. Here you go.

Figuring out how to be an angel’s soulmate was weird. Dean didn’t help the situation much, constantly offering “helpful” suggestions and slipping gay porn into Sam’s bag. Although Sam had to admit, it was funny when Dean found a Victoria’s Secret catalogue with the models dressed as angels. There was a post-it on the front: “Sorry your angel’s defective, but maybe these ones can help you out.”

Much like Dean, though, Sam felt that they had more important things to figure out than whether it was okay to kiss an angel. There was an Apocalypse threatening to happen. A fallen angel to restore, a demon to catch and interrogate. Dean finally opening up about his time in Hell, and Sam understanding just how badly he’d been broken by it. Dealing with discovering Uriel’s betrayal.

Dean was in the hospital, and Cas couldn’t fix him up. When the nurses kicked him out, Sam didn’t fight as hard as he might have, taking Cas to a hotel. “How are you holding up?”

“Poorly.” Castiel sat beside Sam, leaning in against him. “Dean so badly hurt, Uriel a dead traitor… I don’t know what to make of this. The one comfort is that Alastair is dead, I suppose. Are you hurt from your fight with him?”

“A little. Don’t worry about me. I’ve had lots worse.” Sam wrapped his arms around Castiel, holding him tight. “Waking up tomorrow isn’t going to be much fun, but I’ve got it way better than you or Dean.”

“Dean’s pain may be more, but that doesn’t make yours unimportant.” Castiel gently pushed Sam down onto the bed, curling up against him. “How can I help you?”

“This is good, right here. What about you? What do you need?”

“Sam.” Castiel pulled himself up. “I need you to let me in. Let me help you. Stop pretending you’re fine when I know you’re not.”

“I’m not pretending I’m fine. Alastair got a couple good shots on me before I could get him down. I’m scared for Dean, and I’m scared of what Uriel’s defection means for Heaven and for you. But having you here, it’s huge. Whatever you give me, you know I’m happy to take. You can’t do anything about the injuries, and you’re already doing everything I need just by being here.”

Castiel relaxed, settling back down against Sam. He pulled Sam into a kiss, something that was still rare for them, and for once he didn’t pull back.

As Dean recovered, things got very weird. Castiel disappeared, they met Zachariah when he tried to get them to get their heads back in the game, their half-brother Adam sort of showed up. Well, a ghoul impersonating him did. The real brother was long dead.

Dean stood by Sam, watching Adam’s pyre burn. “Where the hell’s your angel?”

“I don’t know. Not like I can see the thread.”

When Castiel did show back up, he completely ignored Sam, telling Dean that it was time to make their move on Lilith. And that Sam couldn’t come. Dean didn’t like that, but Castiel didn’t give him much choice.

Three days later, Sam had heard nothing. Nothing from Dean, nothing from Cas. So when Ruby called to tell him that Lilith was headed for the last seal and they needed to stop her, now, Sam took the Impala and went. The whole drive, he was praying to Castiel, begging him for some other alternative, some other way. At least let him know that Dean had it. But there was nothing. No word, no reassurance. No Cas.

There wasn’t time for Ruby to be gentle about it. She poured blood down his throat until he choked, and then poured more. She got him to Lilith with two minutes to midnight, and he took Lilith down with a minute to spare.

Lilith’s laughter cut through the haze as she bled out, as Sam held himself back from trying to drink her blood as well. And then Dean and Cas were there, too late to stop it as the blood swirled into the sigil that unlocked the last seal and Lucifer was free to rise.

Cas took the Winchesters to safety. Sam fell to his knees, trying to throw up as much of the blood as he could, but very little trickled out. Castiel knelt beside him. “Sam, I’m sorry. I failed you badly, and I hope in time to make it up to you.” He reached out to put a hand on Sam’s shoulder.

Sam jerked away. “Don’t touch me. Don’t… don’t act like everything’s okay. It’s not.”

Cas flinched, but accepted it, standing up and backing away. He looked to Dean. “What do we do now?”

“What the hell is there to do? The three of us, we can’t take on two archangels. So we go find Bobby, make sure Sam’s okay after… what happened. And we fight back against whatever we can find to fight back against.” Dean went to Sam, squatting in front of him so that he could catch Sam’s eyes. “You on board here, Sammy? Us and Cas, we barely got a chance, but we need you in fighting shape.”

Sam retched a couple more times, producing just a little more of the blood. Nothing else was going to come, and he stared at Dean’s hands. He couldn't meet Dean's eyes. “I don’t know, Dean. What I did, I knew better, I’d been warned where that road led… I don’t think I’ll ever be clean from that. I’ll fight, you raised me better than to fuck up like this and just walk away from the mess I made. But don’t pretend like I’m not a monster. I am.”

“No, you’re not. I am.” Castiel reached out to touch Sam, but caught himself and pulled back. “You tried to find another way, and when none appeared, you did what you thought you had to. With the information you had, it was the correct decision.”

“Where were you, Cas?” Sam got to his feet. “Why’d you pull away from me?”

“I was taken back to Heaven, and put through reeducation. They made me… what I went through, it was a struggle. They intended to break me. I fought, and they never quite broke me to the point where I wasn’t fighting, but they got me to where I was fighting myself. And the wrong part of me was winning, until I realized what you were doing. Until I felt the blood.”

“You could feel it?”

“I could.” Castiel reached towards Sam again, this time not pulling back, putting a hand on Sam’s elbow. “It saved me. It got me fighting for the right side. Just a little too late. I knew Lilith was the final seal, after my reeducation. I knew we had to stop you from killing her. If we’d been just a minute earlier…”

“I’d still be…”

“Sammy, no one here cares.” Dean hauled Sam into a hug. “Let’s get to Bobby, figure out where we go from here.”

Fighting back was hard. It got harder when they learned that both sides were after them because they were the true vessels. It got almost impossible when Ellen and Jo sacrificed themselves to give Dean a shot at Lucifer – which failed. Never even had a chance at working. Every time Dean started losing faith, Castiel made him look at the blue thread between the brothers.

When Gabriel died, and the plan became shoving Lucifer’s ass back into the Cage instead of killing him, Sam knew what was coming. And when he told the others what he thought had to happen, they fought it… but they all knew.

This time, pouring the blood down his own throat, it was different. It was scary as hell. With Ruby and Lilith, Sam had something to look forward to after. This time, Sam was terrified of what was coming. But he had to do it. And when Lucifer took control, and Sam couldn’t take it back, it somehow got worse. Lucifer took great pleasure in making sure Sam knew what he had to look forward to if he did somehow take himself back.

When Lucifer blew up Castiel, Sam tried. When Lucifer started beating Dean to death, Sam broke through. “It’s okay, Dean. It’s going to be okay. I’ve got him.” Sam closed his eyes and let physics do the work as he fell back into the hole, grabbing Michael at the last second when he showed up. What else could he do? “I’m sorry,” he whispered to Adam.

 

Oblivion was nice. Castiel was at peace as he drifted apart. But then… he came back together. The first thing he saw was Bobby’s corpse. He could fix that. Dean looking like he’d been back to Hell. He could fix that, too. And then two threads reaching through the ground – a blue one from Dean and a red one from him. “I’m going for him. If this were truly intended to be the end for him, our threads would have broken.”

“He made me promise…”

Cas shook his head. “I know. He didn’t make me, which is why I’m going. Do you really plan to keep your promise, if I fail?”

“No. Go get my brother, Cas.”

Cas didn’t have to be told twice, diving into Hell. He’d been there before, with an army at his back. This time, he was alone, which meant that his best ally was stealth. He made it to the Cage unopposed. Pushing into the Cage, that was harder. He found Sam sitting in a corner. “Sam?”

“Cas? What… Lucifer. Or are you Michael?”

“I’m neither.” Castiel reached out to Sam, but stopped. Something felt wrong. Then he realized – his thread appeared normal, but Dean’s thread wasn’t bound to the figure in front of him. “What are you?”

“I’m Sam. Cas, it’s me. Get me out of here!”

Cas shook his head and left. He tried not to follow the blue string too obviously, lest the archangels catch on, but he used it as a guide to find his way to Sam. Sam, naturally, was bound, but no one seemed to be watching him. Castiel slipped in and used Ruby’s knife to cut Sam free. He put a hand over Sam’s mouth and abandoned stealth, going for speed now.

As soon as he cleared the Cage, Castiel slowed. He checked. Both his thread and Dean’s appeared to connect to the person in front of him, instead of the Cage. “Sam?”

“Cas. Did Lucifer escape?”

“No. You’re out, you’re safe…” Castiel looked critically at Sam. “It appears I left your body behind.”

“Could be worse. You could’ve left my soul.” Sam looked around. “Can we please get out of Hell?”

Castiel agreed, taking Sam to Bobby’s house where Dean was. Recreating Sam’s body was trivial. Settling Sam’s soul within it was very satisfying. “Welcome back, Sam.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are my soulmate.


End file.
